So, we’ve just switched to Daylight Savings Time, and I have a few thoughts.

First of all, despite the complaints about losing an hour of sleep, I think the current system of switching seasonally is sound. We tried year round DST during my freshman year in high school, and in January, it was awful. We were waiting for the bus in complete darknesst, with sunrise coming only as the first classes were getting underway.

Secondly, during the winter, the gain in the afternoon wouldn’t be all that great. Sunset at 5:15 isn’t much better than sunset at 4:15 — sunset is still too early to be useful. I really don’t care about it being light at the end of the day, while I really hate getting up in the dark.

Third, I definitely like DST in the summer. Then, the days are long enough that you can actually do something after supper. And in June and July, the sun is coming up around 4 AM DST; I’d hate to see it coming up around 3.

But I actually prefer Standard time as the days start getting shorter. By the time October rolls around, I’m ready for it to end. I’m switching to more indoor pursuits, and am not looking for extra daylight after supper, and I absolutely despise getting up in the dark — though it does make it easier to be up for sunrise.

If I had my druthers, I’d go back to the old schedule of a couple of decades back, where we switched to DST in mid-April, when the days are long enough to have useful daylight after supper, and switch back last weekend of October, rather than the beginning of November. I’d hate like hell to go back to year round DST — proponents forget that no matter how you slice and dice it, you only have around 9 hours of daylight near the winter solstice.